Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street, London

Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street, London - A group of MPs from Sierra Leone visiting the Commonwealth Institute during the final stages of its construction_x000D_
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Laing built the Commonwealth Institute between October 1960 and October 1962 to replace the former Imperial Institute that was to be demolished to make way for new facilities at Imperial College. The building consisted of a four-storey administrative block housing a library, restaurant, board room and conference hall and a separate two-storey b lock containing a cinema with an art gallery above, but the focus of the project was the exhibition hall with its hyperbolic paraboloid roof, the first of its kind constructed in Great Britain. The exhibition, designed by James Gardner, provided spaces where each of the Commonwealth nations could showcase their achievements and characteristics, primarily to school children as teaching aids to enliven history and geography lessons

Achievements Administrative Aids Builder Characteristics Consisted Constructed Construction X000d Containing Demolished Enliven Facilities Focus Four-storey Hyperbolic Johnson-marshall Laing Leone Lessons Paraboloid Partners Primarily Provided Replace Separate Showcase Sierra Spaces Stages Two-storey X000d

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